Links Exchange – a Hazardous Business?

Most off us want our beautifully crafted web sites to do well in the search-engine ratings, - perhaps even to make it to the first few pages in Google, - which would somehow justify all the long and late hours we put into getting it ‘just so’.

- So we gather in all the relevant information we can possibly find, and include it in all the right places, taking great care in linking our pages properly, optimise each page in turn with a list of ‘keywords’ - and making sure that the most relevant keywords are reflected in each pages ’title tags’..

After having done everything we can possibly think of ‘at home’, - we become aware of the importance of having ‘inbound links’ from other websites, especially from ones of a similar nature to our own little masterpiece, - how a multitude of other sites referring to our site can ultimately make our site look more important to a search engines ‘spider’, and therefore gain in stature within the index of the search engine and move closer to the top of the list of results presented.

At this point we’ll probably come to the conclusion, that the least time consuming way to achieve these ‘inbound links’ is by joining one of the many links exchange programs available on the internet, - such as LinkMarket or InfoWizards – to find other like-minded souls, who are also looking for fresh links into their websites.

These are free to join – although they promote paid options as well – and on the whole work well by letting you (and other webmasters) peruse a list of sites that actively engage in one-for-one exchanges of links with their sites. – You look at the classified listings in their directory, decide which sites you would like to ‘partner with’, tick a box to apply for an exchange, - which will automatically then be ‘proposed’ to the other sites owner for them to decide whether to ‘partner’ with you or not, and if they accept your proposal you’ll be notified and asked to put up a link from your site to theirs.

At this point one could easily get carried away thinking: - YES! Recognition at last.
And - sadly - it appears that many webmasters – especially of commercial sites – factor this into their thinking. Knowing that – as the proposer – you must link to them first, they’ll either take a very long time to put up a link for your site - (months) – or simply not bother at all, hoping that you’ll forget about it as you’re busily chasing after more sites to exchange with.

Well – you’ve now been warned – DO NOT forget about it. Having put your link up to their sites, - give them SOME time – say a couple of weeks – to respond.

But - remember: all the time you’re waiting, your links to them are likely to be producing benefits for their sites, - and if enough suckers do this, they will - in total – have many hundreds of inbound links, for which they are not providing any return benefits at all, - thereby gaining much in Page Rank for no loss of their own!

Keep your wits about you. Before proposing or accepting a trade of links visit their site and check if there is a link from their Main Page to wherever they have their out going links. Then visit the links pages – be sure to keep an eye on the address bar in your browser – many, many sites are now engaged in the practice of having their links on a different site to the one you’re linking to, which again - usually - is an attempt to gain an unfair advantage on you.

One exception would be, where they are engaging in a proper 3 way exchange simply in order for the search-engines not to detect the fact that links are being reciprocated, - which is a good idea as long as both sites on offer are ‘proper’ sites, - but they should be honest and tell you about this up front! All too often you’ll find sites that are nothing but a device for providing ‘cheap’ return links to the likes of you and me.

Also on the increase are sites that will put up your link pretty smartly, often from a well rated page, but then after a week or two, - having allowed you to verify that your link is where you were told it would be – guess what? It disappears again. What a surprise!

A possible tell-tale sign for you to beware of, would be sites showing a high Google PR, whilst having a very few outbound links on their links pages. I have seen quite a few sites with PR[6] or more and less than 50 outbound links in their directory!

One must ask hard questions like: Are they really that good, that thousands of sites would be linking to them without a return link??
- or: Is the content that good and original, that it would warrant that high a rating simply for quality reasons, - considering that most sites struggle to achieve PR[3] or PR [4]??
All this having been said, don’t be put off, - just keep your wits about you and ask yourself pertinent questions, and – most importantly: check, check and check again . .
The ‘smarter’ Google gets, - the harder some people will be trying to con you.
- just an afterthought:

Although we are told that the Google search engine increasingly tend to ‘discount’ – (for Page Rank purposes) - links that are reciprocated in this way, they should nevertheless be worthwhile for another reason: - they guide the search engine’s spider back into your site for another quick scan each time that page is visited, thereby helping any new content added or any changes to your site to be discovered and indexed that much quicker than if left to it’s own devices.

Per Dindorp designed and maintains a number of tourism orientated websites in Somerset - UK, including http://www.bath4u.com/
per@dindorp.co.uk
SuperPublisher.com

How To Build up Traffic

Why would you want a linking strategy for your site? The most important reason is to drive traffic to your site, which in turn would increase visitors that would either purchase from you, make your web site more popular, or reach a larger audience to inform for your cause. The second reason to develop a linking strategy for your site is to help increase your rankings in the search engine. With Google this is very important for achieving high web rankings, and I expect the other search engines to follow suit relatively soon.

There are many ways to develop a linking strategy where the links to your site will multiply without any effort from you. This is the most effective way to generate links to point to your site. In this article we will discuss how to do this, debunk myths, and how to do this without unintentionally harming your site's status.

Debunking myths:

Linking software

I personally don't approve of linking software that does the work for you. Why? Because the software does not do a good enough job where it can tell if the site it has the same theme or relative content that matches your site. Many errors slip through the process when this is done, that can cause damage to the reputation and rankings in the search engine. Also each site that you would like to link to you should have a decent PR ranking from Google to help your site's rankings. (PR ranking is a method that Google uses to put a value on the web site) If you have too many web sites pointing to you with a poor PR ranking it could actually make your site drop in the rankings. And in addition sites with excellent PR rankings would help your rankings a great deal.

Linking farms and automated link exchanges

Linking farms and automated link exchanges are not recommended for the same reasons as the linking software. Poor quality links and potentially harmful to your site. In addition these two methods carry another danger. If the site that links to has been put onto a black list for spam, and your site points to that site your web site will automatically get black listed and your rankings will go down as well. That is why I prefer one way links to your site instead of reciprocal links. It may sound hard to do, but it isn't and I will show you a way to do it below.

The more sites pointing to your site the better. Right?

Wrong! In the past search engines would rank you higher in the search engines by judging the value of your site to the number of links pointing to it. But because people have abused and try to cheat this system, the rules have changed. Now they actually penalize you for too many sites pointing to yours if they are deemed suspicious. For instance many other sites pointing to you with the same IP address (caused by you putting up mirror sites to build links), links that point to that do not have the same content as you ("once I saw a web design site having a reciprocal link with a lingerie site"), and links that have low PR rankings pointing to your site (in this case the more the merrier does not work).

"I've seen a site with only 10 links pointing to it (links from government sites) do better with searches than a site that had over 10,000 links pointing to it."

Another thing to consider: Google has just bought rights to register domain names. So, here is a theory of mine that may show up later. Google may update their algorithm to check links to see if the domain name those links are registered under contain the same registration information. This way it could penalize sites that register a bunch of domain names to point to their site and try to cheat the system.

"The only time you would like a lot of links pointing to your site is if they are from respectable sites, have a high PR ranking, and have relative content."

Who links to your site now?

An easy way to find this out is to type in link:www.yoursite.com into a search engine and you will receive a list of web sites currently pointing to you.

Are they quality links?

You can use Google toolbar located at their site to read the PR ranking, an add-on extension for Firefox, or visit a web site that will tell you the PR rankings of sites that you type in. If you type in page ranking tool in the search engines you'll find plenty of resources for this.

Who links to your competitors that are high in the search engines?

Examine and study the links to and from your competitors web site to learn more. And request links from the same people for your site.

How do I build links pointing to my site?

These are a list of ways to build links to your site that are one way links instead of reciprocal links. I highly recommend these ways to build a solid link foundation:

1) Content and more content. Content will increase your rankings in the search engine and people are more likely to link to you if you have valuable content. One time I had a large college link to one of the articles at my site for a research paper. The college had a high PR ranking and the link is in their archives. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

2) Add a link to us page to your web site. Where you can give the visitors to your site to apply a text link or banner. I recommend a text link to your site that contains keywords for your site. For example, web development contractor would point to my site via hyperlink. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

3) Start a blog on your site that people can go to and bookmark for the latest information in a category that relates to your site. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

4) Offer a free helpful 'how to' e-book to give away that has links inside of it that point to your site. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

5) Submit to online directories. Online directories usually have high PR rankings and get picked up by other directories and web sites to include on their sites.

6) Write a testimonial for a site you like that has the same relative content as yours. Chances are that if you praise their site and sign it with a link (to your site) of who praised them they will post it on their site giving you a fr^ee one way link.

7) Create a free article directory asking people to submit articles to your site, and in exchange for posting their articles on your site have them post a link on their web site stating where their article can be found. (your site) I've seen people put a list of where there article can be found to impress the visitors on how popular they are. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

8) Lastly, and most importantly write articles yourself! When I wrote my first article I submitted it to 25 places. (places with higher traffic views) and the next day over 180 sites were pointing to my web site, because I had a nice keyword enriched link pointing to my site in the article. The next day the total was over 300. How do you find out if they are pointing to your site? Type in your article title in quotes into the search engines and then you'll find out how many sites are posting your article on their site. (This is a way to have your links multiply without the effort)

One thing to do for sure is monitor your results. Who is driving the most traffic to me? Which ways of linking are producing multiplying links without any effort on my part? Which links are actually harmful to me? Do these links compliment my site? Do these things and I guarantee you that the links to your site will increase ten fold.

M Grangerop NewDesignWorld.com http://www.newdesignworld.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=M_Grangerop

Links From Web Rings

As internet linking proliferates with multitude user database, the concept of web rings has gradually evolved. Basically a web ring refers to a group of sites which have identical content and subject matter. These sites are linked together to form a navigational ring.

The basic concept behind web rings is that the visitors can navigate from one site to another for more information on identical subjects. This makes the task easier for a visitor who is trying to gather information regarding a specific subject.

Web rings contain a lot of links on similar topics. Some of the famous topics are cultures, business, finance, religion and much more.

If you want to create your link on one of the web rings, you would have to go through a simple registration process. The registration involves submitting of your URL, your name, your website description and your email address. Then you would have to choose a web ring login name and a password. After confirming all these things, you would submit them to the main web ring site.

After you have completed the initial process of creating a link on web rings, a ring application conformation would be sent to your mail account. You would receive emails regarding the details of your free account and its usage and a verification request. You would receive a navigation code from the website which you have to cut and paste as an HTML tag to your website. This is done so that your website becomes active in the ring.

After you have placed your navigation code you can browse the web ring site. You can get familiar with the tools and the site. You should carefully monitor and navigate all the web ring topics. This would give you a complete idea of how and where to get your link(s) posted. It is essential that your link(s) be posted under the relevant topic with the similar content sites of the subject matter. After spending quality time on the web ring site, you would get a fair idea of how the web rings work and how they can prove advantageous to you.

After that, the web ring website would review your website and verify its quality according to their requirements. When your website would get approved by the web ring, you would receive a conformation regarding the acceptance of your application. You can start posting your links on the main web ring site under the relevant heading.

Creating a link on the web rings can prove advantageous to you. After you have registered with the web rings, you get free publicity of your website. This means that your link would be available to all the visitors looking for the content, you have on your website.

Web rings provide an excellent source of directing traffic on to your websites. The awareness of your website increases as more and more visitors click on your link, searching for a specific subject matter.

Web rings ensure that your websites get all the attention and traffic which is required. It eliminates possibilities of your website going unnoticed while a user is trying to find content similar to the one that you have.

Article Source: http://www.articlecube.com

Discover advanced link building and link popularity tools and resources as a Member of: www.Link-Advantage.com

Links From Testimonials

Stop worrying about getting more links for your website. Its time you flourish your e-business with the help of a plethora of online sources available to you. Yes, in this highly competitive web world, you have to find many new ways to keep up to the quality and expectations of the customers. And building links is one necessary step to get the favorable link popularity to your site. Among so many sources of raising link popularity, one simple but incredibly valuable reserve is links from testimonials.

But before I tell you more about this link building wonder from testimonials, have a basic info regarding the link popularity.

Link popularity is one of the primary tools used by various websites to get their links noticed by major search engines. Various search engines provide page ranks according to the link popularity of the websites. You cannot deny the fact that being among the top 20 results of a major search engine is the ultimate aim of a website. A successful website is the one that ranks highly.

The online marketing experts opine that testimonials are an effortless way of getting the best internet traffic. Testimonials are actually a piece of writing written personally by an individual in praise of a product or a person. Earlier testimonials used to be a great advertising tool to influence public decision for a product or person standing for election. The testimonials written by a person in praise of a particular website is a sure-shot method to get the inbound links. And you get the advantage of one way linking and are not even required to link back to those websites.

To maintain a reciprocal link or a link exchange program, you have to regularly update your website with great content. It is not always possible for a small scale website to generate high quality content to attract links. So, now you do not have to spend hours in maintaining the content and optimization of your website. Just a piece of appreciation for the other website will do the job. A website cannot ignore the comments or the appreciation in the form of testimonials. It will definitely provide a link to your website as a source of the testimonial. You can write a testimonial and generate a good number of links by writing testimonials.

Testimonial should be written in a flattering manner but intelligently. Do not straight away sing laurels for the website in the first sentence. The customers and the website owners are intelligent enough to differentiate between the flattery and the complements. You should not write “this product is amazing. I have tried it for so many times”. Instead you must write “I just came across this product a few days back and the results are really satisfactory. Thank you for launching this product”.

You have to impress the website owners to mention your link without asking for any other link. This is only possible if you are adequately skillful to convince them with your writing skills. Many superior quality websites will be linking to your website if you are able to write nice appreciative testimonial for them. Just write about the website and mention your name, email address and URL of your website.

See for yourself how easy it is to use testimonials for raising good links. It is perhaps the most cost effective means of getting the desired traffic to your website and that too in a very short period.

Discover advanced link building and link popularity tools and resources as a Member of: www.Link-Advantage.com

Using Directories to grow your site

Utilizing Directories for search engine placementsThere are hundreds of directory sites to choose from. Each with its pros and cons. To increase your rank and amount of pages indexed in the best search engines, you should always add your site to directories.To a search engine, there are no such things as bad links unless it is spam etc. Spending a weekend submitting your site to directories will give your site quality backlinks with the anchor text YOU decide to use. Posting on forums such as PixelGoat Webmaster Forums will give you more backlinks as well.Over time you should be able to build atleast 250-300 backlinks via directories. Each time google crawls a directory it will visit your site and do a deeper and deeper crawl. Over time your site will have been covered by google and each and every page will be indexed and your search engine positions will climb.Take the time and spend a weekend building good backlinks. You will be well rewarded.PixelGoat Webmaster Forums contains many other ideas on building your site.

Tips To Increase Link Popularity

Link popularity is the total number of sites that link to your website. Learn about link popularity and get practical tips on how to increase it.

Link Popularity refers to the number of links coming from other web sites to your web site (also called inbound links). The competition between search engines and webmasters has led the search engines to find new ways to measure the importance of a site. Google has been responsible for introducing link popularity as an important aspect in its algorithms. For instance, if Google reads your site and sees many inbound links from related web sites it interprets each link as a “vote” that your site is good and as a result gives you a boost in your ranking.

If you want to improve search engine rankings with link popularity it is important that the bulk of the inbound links that point to your site are coming from other quality sites; in this case quality is better than quantity because the search engines look at the page ranks of the sites that are linking to you – the higher, the better.

Do and Don'ts

Avoid Link Farms at all costs. These are sites that exist for the sole purpose of linking to other web sites without any regard to relevancy or quality, and in the world of linking, “more isn’t merrier”. In fact, Google has started punishing web sites that have link-farm pages so the reward is definitely not worth the risk.

Avoid links from non-related sites. Links from sites that have no relevance to your own site most likely won’t bring good results so if you have a health-related you shouldn’t be linked to a site selling power tools. The search engines can recognize “who” is linking to you and they tend to ignore irrelevant links. The links that you have pointing to your site must be quality, related links that belong to the same category.

Exchange links with popular sites. When you exchange links with other web sites make sure that the site is one that will be useful to your visitors. The rule of thumb is this: If your link to their site is useful to your visitors, then you can safely assume that a link from their site to yours will be useful to their visitors as well.

Linking Tips

1. Start by doing a search of your top keywords in the search engines. Visit the top 100 sites and choose the ones that best relate to yours. Then contact the webmaster with a personal note and tell him/her that you like their site and why. Let them know that you will be putting a link in your site pointing to theirs and suggest a reciprocal link pointing to you explaining how his/her visitors would benefit. It’s also good to make suggestions on where on their site your link would be best placed.

2. You can also set up a link script on your web site. This is where visitors can go to automatically enter into an exchange with you by adding their link. Of course, you will need to approve the link and make sure that it is a site you want to be associated with before you accepting.

3. Look at the web sites of your competition. What sites are linking to them? Visit those sites and contact their webmasters.

4. When you exchange links with another site make sure that you use your keywords in the text of your link. Google gives a lot of importance to the link text itself. This will go a long way to helping the search engines determine what your site is about and relevancy.

5. Write and distribute articles and include in the author’s resource box at the end of the article the information about you, your business and a link to your web site. When your article is submitted to the many article banks online an inbound link is created.

6. Post in forums that are related to your web site and use a signature file that contains a link to your site. Again, the content of the forum post must be related to your site in some way. Make sure that what you have to say is important to the discussion that is taking place.

7. Getting your site listed in as many directories as possible will also increase your link popularity. There are many directories where you can get your site listed for free but most of them have a fee. Don’t forget to look for directories that specialize in your topic or category.

About the Author:
Monica Villarreal is the co-founder of http://www.websitedesigngenius.com a site dedicated to linking entrepreneurs with no technical expertise to information, tips and easy-to-read e-books on how to build their own popular and profitable web sites.

Article Source: http://www.article99.com

Linking Strategy - Post Jagger

“Please take down my link.” I never thought I would live to see the day that I would get an email like this, but the latest Google update has caused some people to panic. This particular person thought that his site would be penalized if he had a link coming from a site in an unrelated field. Well, following the Jagger update how should we approach linking? Should we “nuke” our reciprocal links directories altogether? Or is there a sensible way to continue linking?

Google doesn’t explain the details of their updates and algorithm changes. It is widely thought they made moves to crack down on spamming and techniques designed to fool their indexing efforts. And possibly sites that added lots of irrelevant links in a short period were penalized. Google representatives have also stated publicly, in forums, that if you link to a “bad neighborhood” you could be penalized.

I can’t get inside the Google algorithm anymore than anyone else, but I strongly believe that linking should go on in a “natural” way, in a way that predates the linking craze which Google itself helped to create. Here are some elements of a natural linking strategy.

1. Link to the kinds of sites that will provide good resources for your web visitors.

This is actually the very idea behind Google’s system of Page Rank. Sites that are “cool”, that are informative and interesting will get “votes” or links from other sites on the basis of their value as a web resource. So, link to those sites that are worthy of being in your link directory.

2. Don’t link blindly just because someone is willing to give you a link in return.

Check out any site that is proposing a link exchange with you. Are they a possible spam site? A site that has no content and only ads, or a site in fields such as online gambling, pornography, or similar areas would be suspect. If the site has a page rank of 0 and also has none of its interior pages indexed by Google, then it may have been penalized. You can tell how many of its pages are indexed by making this search: site:www.suspectsite.com .

3. Link to those sites that cater to your target audience.

In the early days of the Internet, the main incentive to link was that it would provide you with some targeted traffic. This concept is still valid. If you have a site about yoga, then find sites whose visitors would likely be interested in yoga and propose a link exchange with them. You may or may not raise your page rank with this exchange, but you will get the kind of visitors that you are looking for.

4. Get One-Way Non Reciprocal Links

There are two primary ways to get these valuable one-way links. The first way is to make your site so informative, so useful, so authoritative, that people will mention it or list it without you having to do anything at all. This is of course not an easy task, but it should be a target. You should strive to be the best in your field and if you can approach this goal then you will be noticed and you will get links without even asking for them.

Another way to get one-way links is to write articles and get them published on other websites. You are probably an “expert” in the field covered by your website. Share your expertise with others in the form of 600-800 word articles. You can distribute your articles in the article distribution groups of Yahoo! Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and make a search for article publishing or free reprint articles and you will find a number of places where you can place your article. Remember to include a link back to your site in the resource box at the end of the article.

So, don’t press the panic button. Keep your link and resource directories but build them up in a way that adds value to your site and helps you to get an extra flow of targeted traffic. If you have the skill to get non-reciprocal links, then by all means get them.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Donald Nelson is a web-developer, social worker and editor. He is the proprietor of A1-Optimization, www.a1-optimization.com and provides search engine optimization, copywriting, reciprocal linking and other web promotion services.

Offline Promotion

It is often quite easy for the Web business owner to overlook the importance of offline promotion. In reality, all your potential customers live offline. They work in the community, shop at the neighborhood supermarkets, attend various places of worship, read newspapers, watch television, visit the doctor and are members of various organizations.

Each of these facts is an opportunity to promote your Web site in the real world, and by routinely combining offline methods with your online promotions, you will effectively extend your reach in the virtual marketplace.

Here are 11 simple ways you can do that:

1. Word of Mouth - This is obviously the most cost effective and powerful way to let people know about your Web business. It may also be the most under-utilized, which is ironic since the majority of your site's content is made up of words anyway. Use every opportunity to talk about your Web site to friends and family. Make it a point everyday to tell six strangers about your business. The impact of this publicity will astound you.

2. Stationery - Include your Web address on all your business stationery, especially business cards and letterhead.

3. Fliers - A simple flier announcing a special offer and displaying your URL can be put together for next to nothing. You can give these out at community events, distribute door to door or ask permission to place them in businesses in your neighborhood.

4. Brochures - A well-prepared brochure is a convenient tool for presenting an overview of your business and highlighting your product or service benefits. They can be handed out or mailed in response to requests for more information.

5. Community Boards - Many supermarkets, diners, restaurants, laundromats, bookstores, and local businesses have a section on their premises where you may place your business cards, fliers, brochures and announcements.

6. Promotional Items - The familiar and ubiquitous promotional coffee mug, key chain, pen, magnet, calendar, tee shirt and baseball cap, are excellent items to display your company logo or Web address. You can sponsor an event for a community organization or little league club and give these items away. Your business will always be associated with the event.

7. Card Exchanges - Very often, local business organizations and Chambers of Commerce will sponsor events where business owners can display their products and network with each other. These are great opportunities to establish contacts and develop sound professional relationships.

8. Press Releases - Put together a one- or two-page document with news about your company's new product or service, and send it off to the editor of your local newspaper, radio and television station. Editors are always looking for something news worthy to feature. This could result in a newspaper article, a radio interview or a television appearance. The exposure is good for business.

9. Newsletters - If you offer an online newsletter, consider printing copies of it and getting permission to leave a few in your doctor's or dentist's waiting rooms. You could place some on community boards in your town and try a few of the methods mentioned above to distribute it.

10. Bulletins - Many places of worship circulate a bulletin at their services that includes inexpensive advertising. Consider placing a classified or small display ad for an extended period in such a publication.

11. Answering Machine - Program your answering machine message to mention a new product or special discount and invite the caller to visit your Web site for more information.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of offline promotion choices. The opportunities are only limited by your imagination.

Many of the above strategies require little or no money, and can be executed as you go about your daily routine. The exposure you gain could be worth the time and effort many times over.

If you want to expose your business to the widest possible audience, you must vigorously and consistently promote it online as well as offline. Effective promotion is to your business, what the wind is to a sailboat. You wouldn't make much progress without it.

Hermas Haynes is an Internet marketer and Webmaster. He offers an informative and compelling blueprint on how to create and manage your own profitable online business in six simple steps. You can download a free preview at: http://SixFigureProfits.net.

Paid URL Inclusion

There are many ways to promote your website and one of themost efficient ways is to use search engines. Searchengines are the first stop for most people trying to findinformation, services, and products online. Because ofthis, it is essential that your website appears quickly insearch results.

The Internet contains numerous search engines, some ofwhich offer what is known as "paid inclusion." This meansthat you pay the specific search engine an annual fee foryour web page to be included in their index.

Of course, every search engine already has an automatedprogram commonly called a "spider" that indexes all the webpages it locates online, and it does this for free. Sowhether you pay or not, your web page will eventually beindexed by all Internet search engines, as long as thespider can follow a link to your page. The major issue is,then, how quickly your page is indexed.

A search engine that offers a paid URL inclusion uses anextra spider that is programmed to index the particularpages that have been paid for. The difference between thespider that indexes pages for free and the spider thatindexes only pages for a fee is speed. If you have paid forinclusion, the additional search engine spider will indexyour page immediately.

The debate over paid URL inclusion centers around theannual fee. Since the regular spider of these searchengines would eventually get around to indexing your webpage anyway, why is a renewal fee necessary? The fee isnecessary to keep your pages in the search engine's index.If you go the route of paid inclusion, you should be awarethat at the end of the pay period, on some search engines,your page will be removed from their index for a certainamount of time.

It's easy to get confused about whether you would benefitfrom paid inclusion since the spider of any search enginewill eventually index your page without the additionalcost. There are both advantages and disadvantages to paidURL inclusion, and it is only by weighing your pros andcons that you will be able to decide whether to spring forthe extra cash or not.

The advantages are obvious: rapid inclusion and rapidre-indexing. Paid inclusion means that your pages will beindexed quickly and added to search results in a very shorttime after you have paid the fee. The time differencebetween when the regular spider will index your pages andwhen the paid spider will is a matter of months. The spiderfor paid inclusion usually indexes your pages in a day ortwo. Be aware that if you have no incoming links to yourpages, the regular spider will never locate them at all.

Additionally, paid inclusion spiders will go back to yourpages often, sometimes even daily. The advantage of this isthat you can update your pages constantly to improve theranking in which they appear in search engines, and thepaid URL inclusion spider will show that result in a matterof days.

First and foremost, the disadvantage is the cost. For a tenpage website, the costs of paid URL inclusion range from$170 for Fast/Lycos to $600 for Altavista, and you have topay each engine their annual fee. How relevant the costfactor is will depend on your company.

Another, and perhaps more important, disadvantage is thelimited reach of paid URL inclusions. The largest searchengines, Google, Yahoo, and AOL, do not offer paid URLinclusion. That means that the search engines you choose topay an inclusion fee will amount to a small fraction of thetraffic to your site on a daily basis.

Google usually updates its index every month, and there isno way you can speed up this process. You will have to waitfor the Google spider to index your new pages no matter howmany other search engines you have paid to update theirindex daily. Be aware that it is only after Google updatestheir index that your pages will show up in Google, Yahoo,or AOL results.

One way to figure out whether paid URL inclusion is a gooddeal for your company is to consider some common factors.First, find out if search engines have already indexed yourpages. To do this, you may have to enter a number ofdifferent keywords, but the quickest way to find out is toenter your URL address in quotes. If your pages appear whenyou enter the URL address but do not appear when you enterkeywords, using paid inclusion will not be beneficial. Thisis because your pages have already been indexed and rankedby the regular spider. If this is the case, your moneywould be better spent by updating your pages to improveyour ranking in search results. Once you accomplish this,you can then consider using paid inclusion if you want tospeed up the time it will take for the regular spider torevisit your pages.

The most important factor in deciding whether to use paidURL inclusion is to decide if it's a good investment. Tofigure this out, you have to look at the overall picture:what kind of product or service are you selling and howmuch traffic are you dependent on to see a profit?

If your company sells an inexpensive product that requiresa large volume of traffic to your site, paid inclusion maynot be the best investment for you; the biggest searchengines do not offer it, and they are the engines that willbring you the majority of hits. On the other hand, if youhave a business that offers an expensive service or productand requires a certain quality of traffic to your site, apaid URL inclusion is most likely an excellent investment.

Another factor is whether or not your pages are updatedfrequently. If the content changes on a daily or weeklybasis, paid inclusion will insure that your new pages areindexed often and quickly. The new content is indexed bythe paid spider and then appears when new relevant keywordsare entered in the search engines. Using paid inclusion inthis case will guarantee that your pages are being indexedin a timely manner.

You should also base your decision on whether or not yourpages are dynamically generated. These types of pages areoften difficult for regular spiders to locate and index.Paying to include the most important pages of a dynamicallygenerated website will insure that the paid spider willindex them.

Sometimes a regular spider will drop pages from its searchengine, although these pages usually reappear in a fewmonths. There are a number of reasons why this can happen,but by using paid URL inclusion, you will avoid thepossibility. Paid URL inclusion guarantees that your pagesare indexed, and if they are inadvertently dropped, thesearch engine will be on the lookout to locate themimmediately.

As you can see, there are numerous factors to consider whenit comes to paid URL inclusion. It can be a valuableinvestment depending on your situation. Evaluate yourbusiness needs and your website to determine if paid URLinclusion is a wise investment for your business goals.
By Article Matrix Administration Team

Article Source: http://www.articlematrix.com

Link Popularity Explained

1) Onsite Optimization This form of optimization is commonly referred to as "search engine optimization" or "natural search engine optimization." Natural search engine optimization information can be found all over the web. For more information, search "natural search engine optimization" on Google.

To properly organize this data, search engines have developed sophisticated algorithms to the measure the importance of the web pages within their databases. The importance of a web page is measured by in two ways, as detailed below:

1) Onsite Optimization
This form of optimization is commonly referred to as "search engine optimization" or "natural search engine optimization." Natural search engine optimization information can be found all over the web. For more information, search "natural search engine optimization" on Google.

2) Offsite Optimization
This form of optimization is commonly referred to as "Link Building." It is often categorized under three identities called "one way links," "reciprocal links," and "text link advertising," as detailed below:

One-Way Links
One-way links can be attained through:

Directories
Message Boards / forums.
Blogs, RSS feeds, and press releases.
Company affiliates including partners, clients, parent and sister websites.
One-way link email requests.
Three-way link email requests.

Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal links can be attained through:

Link exchange (two-way) e-mail requests.
Acceptance of outside exchange requests.
E-mail exchange requests sent from the Company to other relevant websites.
Partnerships - Reciprocating with partners is common among websites. When this arrangement occurs, both partners benefit.
Internal Reciprocation - Many organizations may own or operate more than one website.

In some scenarios, internal reciprocation between sites is search engine friendly. In other scenarios, it may not be. I would advise consulting with an expert to analyze your situation, if you have one.

Link reciprocation should not occur through existing link reciprocation databases that cater to the same group of websites. These networks are commonly called "link farms."

Text Link Advertising
This process involves the negotiating of text link ads on relevant and/or high profile websites. Similar to the process of buying banner advertisements, text link advertisements are available on many websites in all industries. Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network have popularized this form of advertising. Text link advertising is an appealing model to many because it is typically much more cost-effective than banner advertising, and offers an alternative ad model to the more common banner advertising model.

With that said, advertisers can negotiate a wide variety of relevant and/or high profile text link ad media buys. Text link advertising should be employed sparingly at first and expanded over a long period of time. Understand that sparingly can mean different things for different websites. You may want to consult an expert on the best strategy for your website. There is no such thing as a "quick fix" to poor link popularity.

Building link popularity for a website can be a time consuming, monotonous, and daunting task which requires a lot of patience. Employing search-engine-friendly strategies will typically have the best long term results while maintaining a low risk of penalty throughout. It is important to carefully plan the long term popularity for your website. Unlike most public relation strategies, too much attention too fast is bad.

Grow your link popularity over the course of 12-24 months. You should always plan on a one-year strategy when deploying any natural search engine optimization or link building campaign.

About the Author: Joe Griffin is the President of http://www.SubmitAWebsite.com Founded in 1997, Submitawebsite, Inc., "The Industry’s Original Submission Company," is a leading provider of search engine marketing services including natural search engine optimization, xml feed syndication, contextual advertising, and search engine advertising/pay-per click management. Submitawebsite, Inc. also offers web design and development, credit card processing, and web hosting. Stopdog.com Tel: 480.949.6830 Cell: 602.882.1979 joeg AT submitawebsite.com

Alexa: Why you Should be Using the Toolbar

Why on earth would anyone want to install a piece of spyware onto their Web browser? No sensible right minded person would …unless you are a webmaster and you want to improve your SERPS ranking that is.

The Alexa toolbar is not “technically” spyware as it doesn’t retrieve any private or personal information. It does however log all the sites you visit and as webmasters we can use this to our advantage. It uses this information to compile traffic ranking statistics and a relational list. The relational list is very useful as it shows what other sites people who have looked the current website have also visited. Alexa is owned by Amazon and it is possible to make your own Alexa toolbar with your Amazon affiliate code included. You can then place this on your site and get credited when anyone buys through Amazon using the Amazon button on the toolbar you’ve distributed, it is also possible to include a link to your site in the toolbar.

Alexa ranks sites from 1 to 5,000,000 and sometimes higher. Ranking 1 has the most traffic and so on, anything below 250,000 and you should be getting some decent traffic levels. This information can be used to determine how well your advertising campaigns are going and how traffic levels are growing over a period of time. This information can also be used to determine how you rivals are doing and keep you one step ahead of them. The Alexa information is also picked up by other search engines so you benefit from an increase in you SERPS as your site progresses up the rankings .

One drawback of the Alexa toolbar is that it only works on Internet Explorer and not the tool of choice for most webmasters Firefox. However I personally feel this is a small price to pay for the benefits I get when using the tool bar for research and to check my sites daily. Checking the stats of your own site has a positive impact on your Alexa ranking as the toolbar is not generally used by the general public so every extra hit from a browser with the tool bar installed is valuable. I have 1 site that is almost exclusively used by webmasters , As webmasters are the people who use Alexa more than any other group 500 page views a day are enough to get this site into the top 500,000 Another site that has 3 times the traffic but the visitors are mostly the general public so this site is languishing in the 2,000,000 ‘s.

Why not try an experiment for a month, Download the toolbar and monitor one of your sites, once you see the data you get and the way it can be used you won’t know how you survived without it.

More information: http://www.links-factory.com

Article Source Freezine Articles

How To Manage Directory Submissions

'More than 80% of the traffic comes from the top ten search engines'.

You have probably read this statement many times and it's true at least for the majority of websites.

So how about web directories? Is submitting your site to them a waste of time?

Even if directories usually don't deliver a lot of traffic they contribute inbound links to your site increasing its link popularity a very important factor used by search engines to rank websites.

When someone queries a search engine using a keyword relevant to your site, higher is your site link popularity higher are its chances to come up near the top of the results.

Submitting your site to web directories will help you increase its visibility and attract more traffic from search engines.

However you need an overall strategy to successfully manage your directory submissions or you will only lose your time and energies.

Is your site ready?

You should never forget that directories don't exist to give away free links. Their purpose is to provide their visitors with good quality sites.

If you want some chances to get listed you need a well designed web site containing useful and original content or offering useful services.

Your site must also be complete without broken links or links to 'under construction' pages.

Other things that can cause a rejection of your submission are: too many ads (especially pop-ups and pop-unders), automatic redirections to another domain, having the same exact content of other sites (example: the 'self replicated' sites some companies provide to their affiliates).

Preparing your listing details

Open your favorite text editor and write down the following informations:

1) your web site URL.

2) your website Title. Some directories accept only the official site name as title, others allow some descriptive keywords, but in general stuffing a lot of keywords in your title is not acceptable.

Write 2-3 different titles in compliance with these different rules.

3) your website description. Write what your site is about in a couple of sentences. Avoid superlatives, exclamation marks, excessive hype and generally everything that makes your description sound like an ad.

Description should be written in third person. Avoid expressions like 'we offer', 'we are ...'.

4) a set of search keywords related to your site. Separate the keywords with commas, then write down the same set of keywords this time separated by spaces. Some directories require the first format, others the second one.

5) your full name and email address.

Once you have done save the document. By copying and pasting these informations into the submissions forms you will save time and avoid errors.

Or you can utilize Clipboard Magic. This free software allows you to save multiple rows of data and load them into the Windows Clipboard simply with a click of the mouse. It's really useful when you need to fill in many online forms with the same informations.

Finding web directories

The next step is finding directories where you can submit your site.You can use top directories to find minor and specialized directories

DMOZ

Spend some time to determine how each directory is organized and find the most appropriate category for your site.

Submitting to the wrong category usually causes a rejection of your submission.

Compile a list of all directories where you have submitted your site indicating the date of your submission.

Verifying the results

Not all directories send you an email when your site is listed.

You should periodically visit your list of directories and make a search for your site title or url.

Flag all directories where you find your site.

If your site has not been listed after about 2 months from the date of your first submission you can try to submit it again. My advice is to not resubmit more frequently.

You can also contact the directory owner and ask about the status of your submission, but if you don't receive a reply, don't insist. There may be many reasons why a directory doesn't list your site, simply accept the fact that not all submissions are successful.

Submitting your site to web directories is an essential part of your website promotion strategy.

It's a time consuming task, but with the right planning you will be able to manage it successfully.

Article Source: http://nowlearnmore.com

Mike Paolieri is webmaster and co-owner of WebmasterGate, a directory of articles, and website design/promotion resources including a list of web directories that accept free submissions.

Getting Links To Your Site Free

Getting Links To Your Site Free and Easy by Andre Best

If you're the least bit serious about promoting your website(s) online then you have probably heard the recent cry that one's website needs links coming into it. Lot's of links. And without these many, many links one is the proverbial billboard in the desert waiting to be seen by those thirsty for sustenance.

Well after these several years that I've been on the internet I too heard the call and have followed the many internet bandwagons that have rolled into e-town touting the next 'latest and greatest' snakeoil software to get one traffic that they won't believe.

You know the cry... 'The traffic explosion your favorite web guru gets - and it'll only cost you $795 to attend this three-day conference to learn how to play with the big boys (and girls) online.'

Sound familiar? To most owning one or several websites it will.

But after being dragged around the reciprocal linking millstone over the last several months in a valiant attempt to obtain many reciprocal link exchanges and closely monitoring all completed link requests I can truthfully say that that job in itself is a bugger to track and stay on top of.

Why?

Because for the most part one has to rely on one common denominator in that equation... people.

I finally realized that this tactic of getting traffic 'for free' and having it prove itself as viable was indeed true. Link-exchanges do work. But they ARE work too.

But with me being the type of person who writes with my eyes closed (literally), I was told by a couple of e-friends that I should pursue 'articles' more vehemently. I didn't know what they meant so what I did was find out about a couple of the bigger article directories on the Net and I submitted a couple of my writings to them. And then I promptly forgot about this process because it was extremely labor intensive.

And with me being a relatively lazy fellow at times I 'moved on' to other tasks that seemed more to my liking. And ease of use.

But after getting relatively burned out with this link-exchange stuff and dogging real live people to honor link exchange requests after I had 'nicely' place an unexpected link to their site on my site, I was tired of this whole process.

~~~~COMMENT~~~~

Yes, I know there are automated processes and software out there that will do this linking stuff for one, but again, I've also read how the SE's are 'onto' these tactics and reciprocal links aren't as effective as they used to be.

But they are still effective, that's why I still honor the odd link exchange request I get. I just don't spend all my time doing this anymore.

But getting back on track to the actual subject of this article...

~~END COMMENT~~

Back a couple of months ago, I somehow received an email about a new software program that would do 'article submissions' almost automatically.

But let me first digress somewhat and tell you what 'article submitting' is.

Article submitting may sound kind of formal and only for 'writers', but it isn't.

Essentially, anytime one writes something of extended length, even a longer webpage, they've written an 'article'.

Think about it. If you have a website that you've personally written, then you have written articles related to the subject of your website.

So, if your website is all about the best way to burp babies, then you have a whole bunch of 'articles' that you've written about parenting, specifically, burping babies.

What you can then do is submit these articles throughout the WWW and get yourself known as a baby burping expert.

But even more importantly, you can take each of the webpages you've written on your website and turn it into an 'article' - add a link BACK to your site in the footer of the article - and voila! you have written an article and ALSO obtained a link back to your site whenever someone else uses that article.

And all this without having to hassle with e-chasing that non-compliant link partner to honor their link exchange with you.

Sound cool? It is.

Now, like everything else, there is a downside to all this article writing.

It takes time to do.

First you have to have written YOUR OWN articles/webpages. And then you have to personally submit them to any of several hundred article directories floating around in cyberspace.

And of course there is the whole idea of you having the motivation to do this submission stuff too, so let me share a little bit of motivating statistics with you.

Remember how I mentioned earlier about having piddled with submitting a couple of stories/webpages I had written to several of the major article directories? Well, that was about 14 months ago. And remember how I told you that I did this and then promptly forgot about all this article submission stuff?

Well, over those 14 months since I did this, which by the way only took about one hour to do, I now have about 300 STATIC, incoming links to my site from those two articles being posted around the Internet. Yes, 300 incoming, NOT reciprocal, links.

And so what I did was after I received that email from someone touting this article submission software was to do some research on this whole article submission automation software process.

What I came out of this research with was that as of now there are two main article submission software programs that allow one to automate most of the process of doing this sometimes laborious task.

And since it is so repetitive and sometimes painstaking to do manual article submissions I thought that this would be one way to get me back into this process that I think is well suited for the way I like to promote my business online. With words, that is.

After much mental deliberation, and financial detailing, I opted to go for an article submission software that was released during the summer of 2005. Besides it being almost one-third the price of the other main player in this article submittal software e-competition going on, it also appeared to have a lot going for it with a money-back guarantee and a manual and good developer-support.

So I bought it several weeks ago and have been using it everyday to promote several of my websites by submitting 'articles' I've written to the several hundred article directories included in the automatic submissions this software does for the user.

And to say the least, the results, so far, are extremely impressive.

One little statistic. Remember those two articles I submitted 14 months ago and obtained over 300 incoming links from doing so? Well, I've used this software to continue submitting them to other article directories included in the software program.

And now that 300 incoming links number now numbers almost 700. Yes, 700 incoming links from just those two articles. An increase of approximately 400 incoming links, in just five weeks.

To me, those are some GOOD results. Especially without having to chase other humans to reciprocal link with me, building link webpages, tracking linking emails, checking links, buying tracking software, and all that stuff that goes along with the reciprocal linking process.

So, if you're tired of buying links and chasing other website owners for reciprocal link exchanges, do consider using content you've written as a way to get links, and eventually traffic, into your site.

Written by Andre BestPresident, Ultimate Results, Inc.http://www.ArticlesandAuthors.com - THE Premier Site for Articles AND Authors

Quest For Links

High ranking on Google and other such search engines is largely based on the number of sites that links to your page. Due to this factor, the SE conscious web master is eternally engaged in a quest for links. In this article I shall reveal some of the does and don`ts, and perhaps even a few tips and tricks to help you along your quest. Links exchanges can be extremely productive, but here are a few things to consider. Set up a separate page where you will put your reciprocal links, however, do not name this page links.html or links.htm, call it associates.html. This will make other webmasters more attracted to having a link on your page, also it seems a lot more professional to have `associates` rather than; `random people I decided to exchange links with to gain/maintain a high SE ranking`. Furthermore, when first starting out on your quest for links, always be the one to make the first move, by placing a link to someone`s page in anticipation of them reciprocating. You can always remove it if they don`t, and it is likely to encourage them to add a link to your site. Do not be afraid to approach the `Big Boys`, do a search in Google for your keyword, and contact the people that rank highest. This makes perfect sense, but many people simply do not bother contacting the webmasters at the top - thinking they would never agree to exchange links with them. But remember; they too have to maintain their high position and getting new links is the easiest way to do this. Moreover, exchanging links with high ranking sites is far more productive, Google is after all based on weighted voting. To make the most of the links to you, submit the pages that link to your site to the search engines, this will ensure that their `votes` are counted, and if you let people know that you are submitting their pages for free, just because they linked to you, then people are far more likely to link to you in the future. The easiest way to get loads of links from a high ranking site to your own is through forums. Becoming very active on popular forums is a great way to increase search engine ranking. Another good tip is to submit the pages of the forum that have your link on, to the search engines. Now people are going to be sitting there reading this and thinking, `there is no need to do that, Google crawls every link on a page and they will eventually get to the link to your site`. However, EVENTUALLY, is the key word (if you pardon the pun), submitting directly to the search engines will make the process quicker. Also, there is evidence to suggest that pages submitted directly to the search engines and linked to in other pages gain higher ranking. Furthermore, Google does not penalise for over submission, so where`s the harm? Always ensure that you exchange links with sites relevant to yours, but not too relevant, the last thing you want to do is promote your competition. For example, if you run a web design company, exchange links with web design resource sites, SEOs, graphic designers, but not other web design companies - unless you have formed a good relationship with that company and work collaboratively on projects or work in different markets. Good luck on your quest for links!

posted by Thomas Jenkins, Click here to visit this authors web site

Reciprocal Linking Scams

Reciprocal linking scams have increased immensely during the past year. Initially we thought that this problem only related to gambling and casino related websites but an audit of our commercial link partners suggests that it is a serious problem within the broader online community.

Over the past eighteen months, we noticed that our page rank was slowly declining despite the fact that we were continually adding new link partners to our link directory. We had slipped from a five down to a two before we finally identified the exact cause of the problem.

Out of the first 100 links on our anchor site, only seven were still being reciprocated. We recrawled the sites where no link was found with the second spider and got exactly the same result. Then we started manually checking the sites where no link back was found and started discovering patterns of deliberate link fraud.

The scams in order of popularity amongst the scammers

1. The link on the home page to the link directory remained but clicking on it or specific directory links produced a template style page with a few casino banners or simply a page with no directory content – This scam was most popular with the owners of multiple domains with the .co.za and .co.uk suffixes

2. The link on the home page to the link directory remained but clicking on gambling or casino related links returned a list of links to sites owned solely by the same person or company. The worst offenders in this group preferred domain extensions of .biz, .us and .md

3. The link directory index page remained but the link directory had been severely pruned and most remaining links were to the site owners other sites or to casinos. This one is common across all suffixes.

4. Links not clickable – links to the directory and various pages within the directory remained intact. At the time of their link exchange campaign, their links were clickable but at some stage after that the code that makes the link clickable was removed and the site name was placed in bold text so at a glance it appeared to be a legitimate clickable link. This scam is most favored by sites that place a miniature screen shot of the index page of your site beside your back link.

5. A variation of the previous scam. When you run your mouse pointer over the page, the ‘links’ change color but no URL displays in the search bar at the bottom of your browser window. Right click has been disabled on the page so that most people looking at the page cannot see the code. If you use Dreamweaver MX or later, highlight the part of the page you want to look at and then using Control C copy it to the clip board and then use Control V to paste it into the design side of a basic Dreamweaver page. When you click on code you can see what they were attempting to stop you seeing. It may work in the later versions of similar authoring programs. Worst offenders are a poker room and a media company operating out of India.

6. One way link exchanges – usually you are contacted by a search engine optimization company or the SEO person for a large group of websites offering you multiple one way link exchanges with half of their sites if you will link back to the other half of their sites. After a few weeks or months the links to your sites are deleted. The worst offender in this group is a prominent search engine optimization company located in India.

7. Your link starts out on a page with fair page rank usually attached to a domain with high page rank. But after a few weeks is moved to a boon docks page with no page rank that will never be indexed. – common amongst higher PR sites.

8. The link directory is on another domain with no page rank. When you click on the link to the directory on the home page, always watch the bar in the bottom of your browser window and see that the link you clicked is in fact on the domain with which you are exchanging links – watch especially for domain names that are very similar e.g. one letter different in the spelling or a .net instead of a .com and link pages that are hosted on the domain of a link management company. Also watch for redirects. If suspicious go back and click the link again. Often the redirected URL flashes up for only an instant or it just takes an inordinate time for the page to load compared to other pages on the site. If in doubt search for a site map - very popular with some owners of multiple bingo sites.

9. Sub domains of domains with no page rank. Sub domains are supposed to always rank lower than the parent domain. (Of late I have found a few sub domains with up to PR3 attached to a domain with no page rank) If the parent domain has a page rank of zero then link pages attached to that sub domain will almost always be zero so why trade a good link for a dud link?

10. We have never fallen for any in this group but many novice webmasters do so regularly. Beware of high PR sites offering you a link exchange on one of their inconsequential internal pages with the same PR as your index page in return for you placing a graphic link to their index page on your index page. This is a deliberate attempt to steal your hard earned traffic. A variation of this one is they have a number of new sites listed on their index page each month and visitors are encouraged to vote for the site they consider to be the best and you are asked to ask your visitors to vote for your site at the high ranked domain. The purpose is still the same as in the first example in this group.

11. We no longer trade links with sites using Linksmanager unless the link to our site is to be on a hard coded page. You can search in their search box for their link to your site and if they are still linking to you, your URL and site description will be returned but no information to show which page your link is on. Google usually indexes only a few pages in each category of dynamically generated link directories. If your link has not been added to an indexed page, it is unlikely to ever end up on one. When we had a large number of indexed back links, no link manager links were ever returned in a back link querry.

12. Be wary of link exchange requests from webmasters using anonymous e-mail addresses because when they delete your back link they also delete the anonymous e-mail address.

13. Beware of webmasters with PR 5 or above sites offering you a ‘link exchange with a high PR site’ and an inspection of their link directory suggests that your link will end up on a non indexed page i.e. a useless link that is unlikely to ever improve. If the link exchange was with a PR 2 or 3 site there is at least reasonable potential for the PR of the page to increase if the link directory has been fairly constructed.

Reduce exposure to link scams

To reduce your exposure to such scams it is essential to carefully vet all potential link partners in the first instance. Enter link back partner details in a database. As an absolute minimum, enter their URL, the location of the link back on their site, the page rank of the page on which your link is located, the date of the link exchange and a real e-mail address for the contact person.Use a good link checking program monthly and contact offenders as soon as you find your link is missing from their site. This is now essential to keep link partners honest. This problemis a direct consequence of the current page rank system and fierce competition for top rankings. It is easier to retain existing link partners than to continually find new ones.

Points to look for when Assessing Potential Link Partners

Before trading links, look carefully at the other site –

1. If there is no link to the link directory on the index page –Reject - you will get no traffic from that site.

2. Look at the structure of their link directory and count the number of clicks from their index page to where their link to you is likely to be located and then deduct that number from the PR of the site’s index page. If that page is PR3 and there are three clicks to get to the page on which your link will be located, that page will have a PR0. That link will be worthless unless the site gets a minimum of a PR4.

3. If you have not already done so, download Google’s tool bar. If the page rank bar is grayed out, when you are looking at a site, never trade links with that site. The grey bar is said to indicate that the site is banned by Google. I do not know if that is true but I have only ever seen two sites produce grey bars.

4. A growing number of sites with dynamically generated link directories have no page rank on any link pages even though the directories are often constructed in such a way that you would expect the page to rank to be 2 points below the home page. I do not know how most are achieving this. The visible way is to have multiple folders and index pages leading to the links pages and the number of clicks from the home page destroys any potential page rank for the link page. A rare method is to add a no index command for the link directory in their robots.txt file.

Just remember links to such sites are one way links from your site to their site. You give them a good link and they give you a worthless link. A link on a page with a PR0 is a non indexed link and carries no value regardless of the page rank of the index page of the site to which it is attached. When you do a back link check on your domain in Google, you will notice that very few links to your domain that are on Google indexed pages with a PR of less than four are returned in your list of back links. This is why I and others consider that Google now discounts the value of such links.

For indexed pages, count the number of links on the page. The first factor in determining the value of the link is the page rank of the page on which it is located. The second factor is the number of links on the page. The value of the link to you is roughly the page PR divided by the number of links. Of course no one outside of a chosen few at Google knows the actual formula but that is a rough approximation and the reason most webmasters will not trade links with sites with more than 40 links to a page unless the page has a very high PR. A link on the bottom of a good content page is always better value than a link on a directory page as more people are likely to click on it.

When on the receiving end of a link exchange request, do not hesitate to ask for your link to be placed on a specific page and do not hesitate to reject link requests from sites that do not adhere to basic acceptable linking practices.

When considering link requests from new sites, look at any other sites that belong to or have been built by the webmaster proposing the link exchange. Most importantly, look to see if existing link pages have been indexed and the structure of the directory. This will be a good indicator of what to expect for the new site.

When you create your own link directory, consider a hand edited directory with the links at the same level as the rest of the pages on your site. That way your link pages will be only one point below your index page and you will attract more link requests because of that.

Many high PR sites will not trade links with you unless you can place their link back on a minimum of a PR4 page. That way you can start shooting for the top once your index page makes a 5 as opposed to a 7 with the way many link directories are set up.

When you are shooting for the top, it helps you get those high pr links you need to make it to the top.

Author Info:
Article by Brian Osborne ? brioz@winnersrun.com Brian is an I.T. professional and the webmaster at http://www.winnersrun.com, a site focusing on gambling strategies that also includes some articles of interest to webmasters.

Deep Linking and Hosted Marketing Pages

The problem with Search Engine Optimisation is that every body does it. Whenever a new technique gets into the public domain, it soon becomes overused. In order to maintain the credibility and usability of their search results, the search engines quickly reduce the weighting in their ranking algorithms of such techniques. Linking is a case in point. A central factor to “relevancy”, inward/outward links contribute significant weight to page rank and overall search ranking. However, as linking is now both hackneyed and abused, the SE’s are damping or reducing the weighting attached to certain types of links. As they become more sophisticated, the SE’s are able to differentiate between links for their relevance both to the page they are on and the page they point to. This has in turn led to a renewed emphasis on quality content – useful, unique, timely, fresh – and links that fit into this new paradigm are given more weighting than those that don’t. Not only are link farms out, but links on so-called resource pages, even when properly categorized and sparingly placed (not more than 100 per page) are being penalized. The SE’s, unable to fully differentiate between organic link building, and software-enabled, cookie-cutter link spamming have tweaked their algorithms to consider the context in which the link is placed. The factors being considered are:

The number of links on a single page – for “quality links” not more than 5.
The link to text ratio – the fewer links per quantity of text, the higher the link quality.
The link relevance – both to the content of the page the link is hosted on, and the page it points to.
The keyword focus – this should be as narrow as possible both to channel maximum ranking weight to the links, as well make for a readable, useful page.

This brings up the meat of the issue. In order to benefit from inbound links, it is becoming necessary to alter the way in which they are obtained and placed. Two alternative methods are coming into vogue, and now is the time to take advantage of them before everyone gets on to the bandwagon. One of them is a variation on the reciprocal linking theme – “Deep Linking”; the other is a form of article syndication – “Hosted Marketing Pages”.

Deep Linking

Deep linking is where you as Webmaster, link to another site directly from an article or relevant webpage, rather than from a typical link directory or “resource page”. You then request a reciprocal link in exchange, back to that specific page, or any other that you nominate, specifying your required anchor text. To give effect to this strategy, carefully peruse the targeted sites, and establish the pages to which you would like a reciprocating link. They should be relevant and complementary to your own page. If necessary, compose new articles/pages just for this purpose, but many site owners will have in archive many pages/articles that can be dusted off and re-used. This strategy will have the following benefits:

Improves the chances of a successful link swap because you are not hiding the reciprocating link in a rarely visited “resources page”.
As a variation on the general link-swapping theme, it proves that you indeed have carefully assessed the target site for right fit with your own, getting the reciprocating Webmaster more eager to link with you. You are then much more likely to get a positive response to your link request.
Allows you some influence on where and how your own link will be placed, unlike in traditional link exchange, because you will have “optimized” the reciprocating link favourably to the linking partner, and established on which specific pages you want a link from, and the anchor text for the link.
Ironically, because you can reduce the number of links on your traditional links page by moving many of them to your deeply linked article pages, it boosts the link popularity of the remaining links. This increases the value, and credibility of these links as honest recommendations from you, generating traffic from them to the link partners.
This type of link is much more targeted, as it is directly relevant both to the page it is displayed on, and the one it points to. Properly optimized the traffic it obtains will be predisposed to the subject matter, enhancing site conversion for both linking partners.
You are able to build page rank for pages other than your index page.

Hosted Marketing Pages

Hosted Marketing Pages are nothing new in and of themselves. Essentially they are highly optimized articles on specific topics that contain equally optimized links pointing back to the relevant page on your own site. They may contain sales material for your own products and services, or they may be of a more general nature. What is new is that you apply to have these pages/articles hosted on another, highly ranked web site, in return for which you will pay a fee. This is essentially Search Engine-friendly text-link trading. It is SE-friendly because the links are contained in a highly optimized and relevant page. This gets around the link damping that search engines are currently engaged in to reduce the artificial effect on link popularity, of link purchasing. The following benefits accrue to you:

Such pages/articles will serve as a magnet for targeted traffic pre-qualified traffic, as they are optimized for your keywords. They thus serve to boost your site conversion ratios.
Since the links they contain are also highly optimized, and wrapped around keyword-themed content, those links will be categorized as “quality links” thus boosting the link popularity of the pages they point to (your own). This in turn gives a fillip to your search rankings.

Hosted Marketing Pages are also termed Pre-selling Pages or Content Hosting because they are very similar to affiliate pages/sites in that they serve to pre-sell your site’s services or products. You retain much more control on content than in an affiliate situation; there is no qualifying action necessary to trigger your payment for the hosting of the article, and of course affiliates, typically, will not have done the high level, tightly focused optimization that such a page entails. The two approaches are fairly similar in that they are both about an article-embedded, optimized-links strategy. They differ in that Deep Linking is reciprocal linking or link exchange and is therefore free, while Hosted Marketing Pages is advanced link trading. It however offers the advantage of giving you greater control over your web copy, as you would retain the copyright to your own material. Because a fee is involved, you are much more likely to find sites willing to engage in this kind of arrangement.

Hosted Marketing Pages also offer more valuable one-way links, while deep linking is a link swap whose value for search engines is lower. Whichever method suits you, backlinks are too valuable a traffic generation and site promotion technique to leave to the vagaries of search engine changing algorithms. Jump in and be one of the early adopters, and gain valuable exposure before the rest of the web catches on. For more details on these two revolutionary linking and traffic-generation methods read Jack Humphrey's "Power Linking 2: Evolution"

Article Source: http://www.articlecube.com
Al Bert, a New Yorker, is a infopreneur, specialising in Search Engine Marketing, with a focus on links exchange as a traffic generation and web marketing strategy. Visit his site for a review of the latest Link Exchange Management Software He enhances his productivity with SEO Elite 3.2, the leading Links Popularity Management Tool

Do You Make These Link Building Mistakes ?

Many people know that link building plays a vital part in high search engine rankings. But it must be done right. Otherwise, sites with fewer links will rank higher than yours ! How is that possible ? Let me explain.

Google made links important a couple years ago. They started to virtually ignore on-page factors (keyword density, title etc.) and focused almost exclusively on Links.

Google counts number of links to a web page (link popularity) and what those links say about a page (link reputation).

* Link Popularity and Link Reputation

So there's a common first mistake. Many people don't know the difference between link popularity and link reputation. They think any link's good. Did you know that 20 links, with the hyperlink text containing your keyphrase, can outrank 50+ links without a keyphrase ?

note: keyphrase means the words you want your page to rank high for e.g. if someone searches on the keyphrase 'email marketing' then you want most of the links pointing at your page to say, 'email marketing' in their hypertext link.

Ever wondered why only your home page gets traffic ? People get links to their home page only, and don't even know they're making a mistake ! Google, in particular, sees a web site as a collection of individual pages, with each one ranking individually.

So, for example, if your home page gives info on 'email marketing', then you want lots of links saying, 'email marketing'. If one of your sub-pages gives info on 'email software' then that page needs its own set of links saying, 'email software'. Most people think any high ranking for their home page will automatically mean high ranking for other pages in the same web site. It doesn't. Each page ranks individually.

* Internal Link Structure

Link Building isn't just about external links. You need the right link structure within your own site Many people make the mistake of using graphic navigation bars. Search Engines often can't even follow these links, so your sub- pages don't even get indexed. It's beyond the scope of this article to get into detail on the important internal linking structure, but you can make a good start by using text links instead of, or in addition to, graphical navigation links. Then the search engines can follow your links.

* On-Page Factors

Finally, not all search engines treat Links with the same importance as Google. Yahoo, MSN, Inktomi make much more use of on-page factors. And guess what ? You control on- page factors, so there's no excuse for getting this wrong. Be sure to get your keyphrase into title, description, headings and body text. Don't overdo it and try to spam the search engines with excessive use of keyphrases, but be sure they know what your page is about.

With the right link building strategy, your search engine rankings will soar, and you'll start getting all those visitors that will electrify your web business.

About The Author:Why do some people get an avalanche of profitable website traffic without spending a dime, while others get nothing? Neil Stelling has created LinkBuilding101 to show you how. Click http://www.LinkBuilding101.com/lbm